As alluded to in drawing FIGS. 1-3, rudimentary socket wrenches devoid of nut-ejecting capability are well known in the prior art. Drawing FIG. 1 is a longitudinally extending side elevational view, FIG. 2 is a detail sectional view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a a transversely extending elevational view (taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 2), of a rudimentary socket wrench 10. The typical prior art socket wrench 10 of FIGS. 1-3 comprises a tubular sleeve (10) surrounding a longitudinally extending central sleeve-axis 10A and having a nut ("N") gripping front-end 10F and a driveable (100) rear-end 10R respectively perpendicular to sleeve-axis 10A. Socket sleeve 10 includes an external-wall 11 circularly surrounding sleeve-axis 10A and a bore defining internal-wall 12 along sleeve-axis 10A whereby walls 11 and 12 each has a finite-length "FL" extending leadwardly from rear-end 10R to front-end 10F.
Longitudinally extending sleeve internal-wall 12 includes three consecutively longitudinally extending length portions along finite-length "FL" as follows:
(i) a fitting-length 13 commencing at sleeve rear-end 10R and having a non-circular cross-sectional shape for removable mounting to a selectable socket wrench driving means. For example, the shape might be rectangular for removably frictionally accommodating the rectangular driving shaft 113 of an air-powered gun driving means 100;
(ii) a medial-length 15 commencing at the forward terminus (14) of fitting-length 13 and having a circular cross-sectional shape larger than that for the fitting-length whereby an abrupt sleeve-shoulder 14 (at the juncture of lengths 13 and 15) circularly surrounds sleeve-axis 10A, and said medial-length 15 providing the major proportion of sleeve internal-wall finite-length "FL"; and
(iii) a fastener-length 19 commencing at the forward terminus 16 of medial-length 15, said fastener-length 19 being of regular polygonal cross-sectional shape for conformably gripping a polygonal cross-sectional nut fastener (e.g. "N") for disengagement from a threaded stud ("S") therefor. For a hexagonal nut "N", the fastener-length 19 has a matching hexagonal cross-sectional size.
Operation of the above described art socket wrench 10, and for a typical purpose of rotatably disengaging hexagonal nut "N" from a threaded stud "S" protruding from a panel "P", is typically as follows. As an arbitrarily selected driving means for rotating socket wrench 10 about its sleeve-axis 10A, there is shown an air-powered (e.g. via airline 101) gun 100 having its powerably rotatable shaft 113 extending along longitudinal-axis 100A alignable with sleeve-axis 10A within fitting-length 13. Then, as alluded to in FIG. 1 phantom lines, the combination (10+100) is brought toward stud "S" so that sleeve fastener-length 19 grippably surrounds hexagonal nut "N". Next, the operator actuates airline switch 105 causing shaft 113 and socket wrench 10 to co-rotate about colinear axes 100A and 10A whereby nut "N" becomes disengaged from stud "S" as alluded to in FIG. 2 phantom line. However, because of the necessarily close cross-sectional sizes of fitting-length 19 and nut "N", and as alluded to in FIG. 2 phantom line, it is oftentimes difficult for the operator to dislodge the stud disengaged fastener nut from the socket wrench (10).